My Blogging Ethic

Spurred by a couple of unconnected contacts. I blog therefore I am (someone said), so when I blog …

I blog links of interest (ie where I perceive value) in order to distribute that “knowledge” more widely and in doing so acknowledge the sources of such links.

I create new links, because new links are new knowledge, whether these are new links between my own thoughts and existing external links, or between two or more external links.

I rarely, if ever, blog a thought not connected to some existing link, though occasionally time pressure may mean that existing link is not immediately explicit.

(Excuse the self-indulgence.)

Institutionalised Memory Loss

[Also via Apothecary][via MetaFilter]. The Memory Hole: named after the text disposal chute in Orwell’s 1984, this site notes and preserves expunged information. While the theme is mostly political (unacknowledged reversed policies, unpalatable war information, etc) it also covers wider cultural stuff: for instance, Sunflower, the character Disney removed from Fantasia and later denied having existed; the cigarette removed from a Beatles poster; and Oliver Sacks on recovering forgotten medical knowledge. (The Sacks item comes from a nice Wired biographical feature, The Fully Immersive Mind of Oliver Sacks).

Coincidentally business memory loss is an issue for customers in my day job at the moment. Is it accidental or a “convenient” re-writing of history, or simply compression of the messy – see previous post – I guess it depends whether you’re a cock-up or conspiracy person. Another issue I have is “mis-reporting” – systems which log useage of time and resources are often constrained by budgetary allocation rules. Recorded history is often (normally) lies, even though no-one involved intends to deceive. Same story as DeLorean’s “Committees of moral men often make immoral decisions.”

Metaphor is Naturally Simpler

[via Apothecary] [Via MetaFilter] A classic Stephen Jay Gould essay, The Creation Myths of Cooperstown. Gould compares the real and mythical origins of baseball, as a metaphor for the general human preference for creation myths over messier evolutionary reality. IMOW Causality arising as emergence from complex layers (of what may be underlying scientific simplicity) of reality invariably get expressed in convenient metaphors. The trick is not to forget that real life and language is 99% metaphor. [Metaphors as compression, Lakoff etc.]

Drive to Decentralisation and Autonomy

Drive to Decentralisation and Autonomy – Interesting post from Jim McGee’s Musings. This loose-tight management issue is as old as the hills. (Ref Charles Handy, or Tom Peters and many before.) What is interesting is that the rise in open decentralised “peer-to-peer” arrangements / social software really is a drive towards more effective and efficient creativity in business. My main thesis in fact. I think I’ll take look at the referenced book by Bob Keidel.